AI Writing Just Took a Huge Step Forward – Here’s Why It Matters

Watch This 50-Second Walkthrough First

Before diving in, the best way to grasp how AI writing has changed is to watch this 50-second visual walkthrough from OpenAI’s "Introducing Canvas" blog post.

The Problem: AI Writing Has Been a Two-Step Process

Until recently, getting AI to assist with writing significant documents was a laborious, two-phase process:

1. Generate a rough draft using AI (whether in Word/Copilot or something like ChatGPT).

2. Format and finalise manually, often requiring extensive copying and pasting.

With Copilot, this divide is punctuated by the "Keep it" button—everything before that button is 100% AI-generated and can be regenerated at any time. Everything after "Keep it" is on you, with no way to refine sections without starting over or living in copy/paste hell.

But in reality, finalising a document isn’t a simple two-step process—it’s an iterative, cyclical refinement.

For example:

• You might be midway through formatting and need AI to summarise a specific paragraph—but you don’t want to regenerate the entire document and lose your work.

• You might want to edit some sections manually while using AI to refine others, adjusting tone, expanding, or condensing specific parts.

• Sometimes, you simply need advice on a section without making any changes at all.

None of this was possible—until now.

The Game-Changer: OpenAI's Canvas

Recently, OpenAI announced Canvas, a major shift in AI-assisted writing.

The key innovation? Canvas separates your editable document from the AI chat window and keeps them side by side. This unlocks entirely new ways to work:

• Ask questions about your document without modifying it.

• Get AI to format text properly with headings and structure, making longer documents easier to read or repurpose.

• Directly edit the document without AI overriding your work (unless you specifically ask it to refine something).

• Select specific text for AI refinement within the full document context (unlike Copilot, which often treats isolated text out of context).

This shift makes AI writing truly collaborative, rather than a rigid "AI first, human second" workflow.

To be honest, Microsoft has dropped the ball on this. They could have implemented this in Word/Copilot years ago, but instead, they focused on niche collaboration tools like Copilot Pages. Ironically, they use OpenAI under the hood anyway—and as leaders in user experience (at least financially), they should have seen this coming.

If you want a deeper dive, I’d recommend this video [insert link].

What Does This Mean for NFPs?

For for-purpose organisations, especially those deeply embedded in the Microsoft ecosystem, this presents a dilemma:

Do we start using non-Microsoft AI tools like OpenAI’s Canvas alongside Copilot?

From a productivity standpoint, the justification is clear—these tools free up human time for higher-impact work. But from a data security perspective, the decision is more complex:

• Microsoft already hosts your sensitive data (OneDrive, SharePoint, Outlook), so the incremental risk of using Copilot is effectively zero.

• Introducing a new vendor like OpenAI means evaluating additional risks, and many NFPs lack a clear framework for making these decisions.

If you need guidance on this, reach out—I’m planning an article on risk assessment for AI tools but can provide insights in the meantime.

The reality is, the gap between Microsoft and others is widening, not closing. I’ve been watching this space for two years, hoping Microsoft would catch up—but it’s not happening.

At some point, NFPs will need to decide:

• Become multi-AI vendor organisations to leverage the best tools available.

• Or risk falling behind, missing out on efficiency gains that could significantly amplify your impact.

The AI writing landscape has just shifted. How will your organisation adapt?

If you’ve tried OpenAI’s Canvas, what’s your verdict so far? Love it? Unimpressed? Hit REPLY and let me know.

Andrew Walker
Technology consulting for charities
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-walker-the-impatient-futurist/

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